Cuba to free 553 prisoners after removal from US terror list

HAVANA, Jan 15 (AFP): Cuba said Tuesday it would release 553 prisoners in response to an announcement from Washington that it will remove the communist country from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The White House said earlier that President Joe Biden was removing Cuba from the list in a deal that will see protesters imprisoned in the country released.
The move will likely be overturned after the return to office next week of Republican Donald Trump, who reinstated Cuba's terror designation in the final days of his first term of office in 2021.
"An assessment has been completed, and we do not have information that supports Cuba's designation as being a state sponsor of terrorism," a senior Biden administration official told reporters.
Cuba welcomed the move as a step in the "right direction," but lamented it was still under US sanctions in place since 1962.
The foreign ministry later announced that 553 people imprisoned for "diverse crimes" will be released.
Cuba blames the US blockade for its worst economic crisis in decades, marked by shortages of fuel, food, medicines and electricity.
Driven by blackouts and soaring food prices, thousands of Cubans took to the streets nationwide in July 2021, shouting: "We are hungry" and "Freedom!" in what was the biggest challenge to the government in years.
According to the Mexico-based Justicia 11J NGO, which focuses on human rights in Cuba, more than 1,500 people were arrested after those protests, of whom 600 were still in prison last December.
One person was killed and dozens injured in the protests, which Havana accused Washington of orchestrating.